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Super Indie Karts by One Legged Seagull is a Mode 7 based kart racing game with indie game characters as the drivers. This game is made by One Legged Seagull and was one of OUYA's Free the Games Fund participants. The original Kickstarter didn't get funded but the 2nd time it flew through and there was no doubt of the viability of the game. OUYA has been missing a solid kart racer like this so let's dwelve into the game a bit and see what SIK is all about.

From the start screen moving forward, this game looks like a top notch game. If this game was on Super Nintendo or Genesis at that time, I would have bought it. Every detail in the menu alone looks like it was carefully taken care of. Since this is a beta you are locked into the Grand Prix but there are Time Trails and Battle Mode planned for the future which includes local multiplayer (as of this review, there is no plan for online multiplayer.) You currently have a choice of 12 tracks but that will balloon to 40 or more on release. You also have 26 of 36 possible characters and there will probably be even more later.

The gameplay is tight in the opening 50cc circuit. The steering and handling is great. Love the drifting where in other games it's more like sliding until you hit something. The weapons are standard fare weapons, shields, guided missile type, oil slick type but they don't look like your standard weapons. The weapons are coconuts, pineapples, watermelons, chilis, ice cream and I believe there is one more I left out. But where there is an issue is when you hit the 100cc and 150cc circuits. The action gets hot and heavy and maybe a little too fast. This may need to be toned back a bit but since it's in beta, there is plenty of opportunity for that.

The sound in this game hits the mark in every way. The combination of original music plus the music from each character's game, really keeps things interesting. Sound effects from the weapons, the jumps, hitting obstacles, it's all on the mark. Right from the start screen to the end of the stages, all the sounds and music are superb. You won't find too many games on OUYA that have done this, it really gets you into each stage if you've played some of the other games and may even get you to go check out some of them.

When it comes to visuals, the game is also on the mark in that department. You would think you pulled out your Super Nintendo and started playing Super Mario Kart. One Legged Seagull did a great job of getting the look down. He even added seagulls flying around and landing on the track. These days people want games that more realistic even if they don't deliver any gameplay or replayability, not that you will find other Mode 7s anyway since Mario Kart kind of destroyed and dominated the genre.

This game is still a beta so there are some flaws, these will probably be addressed by the time the game is released. So overall this is a very strong effort and when it finally hits OUYA as a released game, they better market the hell out of this. Even with these flaws, the game is solid so far and I feel I can give the game a 4 shuriken rating. I think when this game finally leaves beta it will be a 5.

This game has received a few updates since the time of this review. The speed has been tweaked in the faster circuits, there are more characters, and some of the obstacles have been removed with some directional indicators added. So there are improvements and this game is still on track to be one of the best games on the OUYA. Definitely a game you should check out.